Prepared Culture Media

What is Prepared Media?

Prepared culture media, within the spectrum of the pharmaceutical and cleanroom industries, is media developed for the cultivation and selection of microorganisms.

The goal when using prepared media is to achieve accurate, reproducible, and repeatable microbial tests. Prepared culture media comes in both solid and liquid forms, and has a great many applications. Naturally the integrity of the media is of paramount importance to ensure success in whichever application it facilitates.

The Various Applications of Prepared Media

There are multiple applications of prepared culture media. The choice of prepared media is directly related to the specific application for which it is needed.

Some of the applications of prepared media include:

Environmental monitoring of people, air and surfaces in the cleanroom environment

When looking at environmental monitoring, different prepared media may be used to achieve the monitoring which is crucial to maintaining a sterile cleanroom environment. For example, contact plates can be used to test areas of a gown worn by individuals in a cleanroom for contaminants, as well as when testing surfaces within the cleanroom. An active air sampler, directs a measured volume of air onto an agar plate. Settle plates are used to collect viable organisms falling out of the air. Settle plates identify the contamination rate per surface area in a specified time.

Process and operator validation

Processes and operators must be validated to ensure they are competent and not likely to contaminate any material or the environment. Agar plates and Tryptic Soy Broth (TSB) can both be used to determine the safety of the aseptic process when performing sample transfers by operators during processes, and identify areas of weakness and contamination.

Investigations and raw material testing/sterility testing

When conducting raw material/sterility testing, all the prepared media used must carry a detailed traceability of raw materials, processes and the personnel involved in its production. This is to avoid false positive results due to contamination.

Want to know more? Have a look at our breakdown of prepared media applications here. Or you can download our eBook, The Pharmaceutical and Cleanroom Industry’s Pocket Guide to Prepared Culture Media.

How is Prepared Media Manufactured In-House?

Preparing culture media in-house involves many complex logistics. There are several key components that must be accounted for when considering in-house prepared culture media manufacture. To successfully manufacture your own prepared culture media, you need to consider whether you can meet the facility requirements, whether you can obtain ingredients of sufficiently high quality, and whether your equipment has been calibrated appropriately and qualifies for prepared media manufacturing.

Your operators and staff should also be fully trained in preparation procedures. You will need to adhere to uniform procedures and presentation and all your media must pass sterility assurance. There are some more considerations to account for. Have a look at our blog on the tips and tricks to preparing culture media for further insights.

Should I Buy Prepared Media or Create it In-House?

If you are considering whether to purchase your prepared culture media or to prepare it in-house, there are many aspects to keep in mind before making a decision.

Advantages

Dealing with a supplier of prepared culture media means you are guaranteed:

A wide variety of packaging is available for effective transport and storage

Disadvantages

You may prefer to produce your prepared media in-house if you think it might be too expensive to deal with a supplier. However, this is usually a mistaken idea as suppliers can be reasonably priced because their overhead costs are shared between many users and offer the added benefit of creating bespoke solutions to suit your needs.

How do you Store Prepared Media?

Prepared culture media has specific storage requirements. Among them you will find criteria such as:

Maintaining stringent control of both temperature and light

Ensuring storage always takes place in a clean space

Choosing packaging appropriate to your needs (grip is an important consideration here)

Storing prepared media in the appropriate positioning

What are the Quality Standards of a Prepared Media Laboratory?

A prepared media laboratory is held to the highest standard of compliance. Therefore, the laboratory you acquire your prepared media products from, must be able to provide you with QC certificates for their products and processes.

These QC certificates prove that the laboratory’s prepared media products have been tested at random for pH, sterility and growth capabilities, and the results have been favourable. The results prove the product is fit for its purpose.

All prepared media manufacturers and suppliers must provide products that tracked with batch identifiers and use-by dates. The manufacturer must also disclose details including storage facilities and the traceability of their raw materials. A robust quality management system, assessed to ISO 9001 is paramount for the laboratory to maintain a foundation that creates consistency within the product.

Over the years, our brand has developed a strong reputation within the pharmaceutical industry for always providing consistently high-quality products with a flexible, efficient service. Each batch of Redipor Prepared Media goes through extensive product testing prior to being released to customers, this ensures they can be used within critical areas.

We are focused on retaining flexibility within our production and packaging facility which allows us to offer bespoke prepared media solutions to meet the specific requirements of all our customers.